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W. 0. TAYLOR.

STOP MOTION FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.29' I916,

Patented Sept. 23, 1919.

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Inventor ,illi

W. O. TAYLOR.

STOP MOTION FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.29. I916 Patented Sept. 23, 1919.

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mnmnemmmn WILLIAM 0. EPAYLQR, E LLIIFCWJICE, PETNNSYII'VANIA, ASSIGNOR T0 WELDIMAN MG. 0Q, 0111' NGREIfi-TQVJN, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF EENNSYLVANIA.

/ v v i I ESTOlP-MOTION FOR KIl'ITTING-MACHINES.

' and useful Improvements in Stop-Motions for Knitting-Machines, of which the followin is a specification.

y invention relates to a stop motlon for I knitting machines of the type described in another application for Letters Patent of the United States filed August 29th, 1916, Ser. No. 117 ,489, in which drop fingers are employed which are held up by the draft of the yarn and in which a friction member is employed to create a frictional restraint on the yarn when the drop finger falls, due to the existence of tempora normal conditions, said reslstance to the free running of the yarn serving to place sufficient tension thereon to effect the restoration of the yarn drop finger to normal position without operating the trip mechanism, which the drop fingers are designed to control and operate when the drop fingersfall through a certain predetermined angle.

In carryin out my present invention I aim to provi e an arran ement by which a heavier drop finger may e employed for a given gage or quality of yarn than ispossible in the arrangement disclosed in my said other application, this heavier dro finger to certainty and quic ess of contributm operation 0% the trip mechanism and I have sought to simplify the construction, render it more compact, and of less height than the other form of apparatus referred to above. Other objects of my present invention will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the features and combination and arrangement of arts hereinafter described and particular y pointed out in the appended claims. 4

In the accompanying drawings;

Figure 1 is a side view of the stop motion with some parts omitted.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of part of the head.

Fi 3 is a detail view of the upper weig ted end of the drop finger.

Fig. 4 shows a detail.

Fig. 5 is a view of a part of the toothed controller disk.

Fig. 6 is a view of the stop motion head and let of mechanism.

The drop fingers 10 are pivotally mounted or passing ab-.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept 23, 1919,

Application filed August 29, 1918. Serial No. 117,490. A

at 10 to a supporting ring 17' suitably supported by its hub or sleeve '17 on ost 1 arranged above the knitting head. The yarns X come down from an overhead guide or dropofl' finger of suitable form, not shown, and pass through guide eyes or loops on the drop fingers, there being. one of these fingers for each yarn, only two of which fingers are illustrated in 'Fig. 1 and one of these at A is in its elevated position being held u by the draft of the yarn running'throug its eyes or bearings while the other finger is shown down in position assumed by it when its yarn fails and the tri mechanism is operated by the fall of t e drop finger. This trip mechanism is arranged in a casing 24. located below the plane of the pivot support or plate 17' for the drop fingers. The trip mechanism itself is not shown, it being substantially the same as that disclosed in the application above referred to. This trip mechanism is operated by radial rods or wires 15", which extend directl close to and below the pivots thereof to the trip mechanism. This trip mechanism when operated actuates any suitable let of! mechanism through the lever 2 and rod 3 in substantially the same manner as is described in the application referred to. The upper parts of the drop fingers constitute weight members 13 for causing the fall of the drop fingers when the yarn fails.

These weight members carry supplemental weight members 13 pivoted thereto at 13 and held in position by a friction washer 13 and a shouldered pin 13,Fig. 3. By turning the supplemental weight member the center of gravity of the weight memberas a whole may be varied to suit.

different working conditions.

A toothed disk or cam member 40, which is like the disk 40 of the application referred to, in all essential respects, is arranged to act directly on the drop fingers or rather on the weight members thereof, instead of on the levers, 15 of the form shown in the application, this cam ring or disk having high parts which when the cam ring is turned act upon and lift the drop fingers to their elevated positions, as shown at A, this taking place before the machine is started in the present instance, the said cam ring being manually operated as will be described.

This toothed disk or cam acting as it does from the drop fingers or their main bo y portions directly on the drop fingers is arranged below the ring support 17 on which the drop fingers are ivotall mounted, instead of above it, as in the orm of the appllcatlon mentioned.

Furthermore, as before stated, the trip mechanism instead of being. in a casing, arranged above the plane of thedrop fingers and above the cam plate 40, as'ln said application, is located in the present invention in a casing 24* arranged'below the said parts. The cam or toothed ring 40 rests upon this casing, being guided by a shoulder 24 of the ring 17 and it lies directly against the under face of the said pivot support or ring 17 for the drop fingers. This arrangement of parts materially reduces the height of the stop motion head and renders the construction more simple and compact and permits the overhead parts to be of less height.

In order to control the action of the cam or toothed ring 4:0 by hand I provide above the plate or ring 17 a collar 105 under tension of a spiral spring 105 and having a handle 105 by which said collar may be turned against the tension of its s ring. The collar has an arm 126 with a pm 127 depending therefrom through an opening 128 in the plate or ring 17 and into a notch in the cam or toothed ring 40*. By turning the handle the ring 40 will be turned to make the high parts of the teeth act on the drop fingers and hold them all up in operative position while the machine is being started up and after the drag or draft of the yarn becomes sufiicient to alone hold the drop fingers up the spring 105 returnsthe collar 105 to normal position, thus returning the cam or toothed ring to such position that the low parts of its cams or teeth are opposite the drop fingers and therefore any one or any number of said drop fingers can fall freely when such abnormal conditions exist in the yarn fed therethrough, as amount practically to failure of the yarn to feed.

The spring 105 is seated in a recess within the collar or hub 105*, one end of said spring being held by the plate 17 and the other end entering an opening in or being attached to the collar 105*.

I have also made an improvement in the yarn guide ends of the drop fingers. This consists in providing two bearings or en-- greater run of yarn is require to move the drop finger outward through a given distance than is the case with a single bearing 'on the drop finger for the yarn, say two inches of yarn for a one inch movement of the drop finger. With the two bearings 10 10 for the yarn and with a given amount of slack in the yarn the drop finger will only move one-half the distance in taking up this slack as would be the case if only one bearing for the yarn were employed, or in other words the movement of the finger in taking up a given amount of yarn would only be half as fast when two bearings are employed as would be the case with only one bearing.

This will prevent excessive vibration or chattering of the drop finger, due to slack in the yarn.

Another advantage of the two bearings 10, 10 is that the yarn is brought into contact with a greater length of friction surface on the ring 33 when the drop fingers falls than with a single bearing, because the yarn wraps, as it were, around both the upper surface and "the lower surface of the ring 33 as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 at the time the drop finger falls.

This materially increases the tension on the yarn and the quick restoration of the drop finger to raised position results in re- 4 spending to changing conditions in the yarn which are of temporary or passing character not sufiiciently extensive to require the operation of the let-ofi mechanism.

It will be understood that while I have shown herein a form of the apparatus in which the cam or toothed ring 4:0 is operated by a handle and without an automatically operating connection extending to the ring such connection can be used of substantially the form described in the application referred to involving the link 97, 98

- therein shown with its yielding connection 99 and with the bell crank 96 and link 41 the handle 105 being omitted and the handle 105 being employed instead to hold the cam ring in position with its highparts holding the drop fingers up in operative position. It may be noted in this connection that to move the cam ring 40 in position to lift and hold the stop fingers up the handle 105 is pressed leftward from the position shown in Fig. 1,

' the position shown in Fig. 1 being that in which the cam ring presents its low parts.

opposite the drop fingers as to permit their operation under the draft or lack of draft of the yarn. The disposition and direction of the teeth of the camring 40 is shown in Fig. 5.-

With thisstop motion head the let off mechanism described in the application before referred to maybe employed, but in this present form the automatically operating connections for the controller ring 40 is omitted and the control of this ring may be effected entirely by hand. The form of the other a plica'tion differs from the above in that wh1le the cam or toothed rin may be operated by hand through the ban le 105 it is also operated automatically.

While as above mentioned various forms of let-ofi mechanism may be used with the stop motion mechanism above described, I

. illustrate herein the same form as that disclosed in the case above referred to. The rod 3 leading from the main trip mechanism is connected with supplemental trip mechanism which includes acatch lever 51 engaging a lever 49 on the up er end of a shaft 47, the lower end of whic is connected through arm 55, link 56 and arm 57 with a rod 58, which is fixed to a slidable or shiftable member or cross-head 59 pressed by a sprin 60. This cross-head is connected through Iinks 65 to handles 68 pivoted at 69 to a slidable belt car ing frame 70, 72. By the operation of t e handle 68 the cross head 59 can be shifted toward the left a inst the pressure oi: the spring 60, so t at the supplemental trip mechanism 49, 51 will be set, provided the drop fingers are held in their working positions and as above described the holding of the'drop fingers in their elevated or working positions is effected by the handle 105 to bring the high .40

turning the toothed ring or cam by means of arts of the cam to act on and raise and hold t e drop I fingers.

It will thus be-seen that in setting the stop motion and let-ofi the operator manipulates two handles, namely, the handle 105 to move and hold the drop fingers in their elevated positions and then by operating the lever or handle 68 the sup lemental trip will be set and the let-off mec anism will be 1 set in position to drive the machine.

As in the application above referred tothe setting of the let-ofi' involves the turning of the handle 68 upwardly from the osition illustrated and then turnin the ham e down again in the reverse direction the first movement moving the cross-head 59 to the .left against the pressure of spring and thereby setting the supplemental trip and the reverse'movement of the handle causin the shiftingof the belt fork frame or sli e 70, 72 to the left to shift the belt onto the fast pulley. I

What I claim is 1. In combination in a stop motion for circular knitting machines, a drop finger rom its or rod connection extending directly fromthe depending drop finger at a point mtermediate the u per and lower limits thereof and horizontally and radiall inward to the. trip mechanism, substantial y as described.

2. In combination in a stop motion for circular knitting machines, a ring supported above and coaxially with the knitting head, a series of drop fingers pivotall mounted at the edge of the rin and inc ining outwardly and downwar y from said edge when in normal position, trip mechanism arranged centrally in respect to the drop fingers and radial rods extending directly from the depending drop fin ers to the trip mechanism, substantially as escribed.

3. In combination in a stop motion for knitting machines, drop fingers pivotally mounted and depending below their ivots for engaging wlth the yarn, said ngers moving radiall in respect to the knittin head, trip mec anism and rods .connecte with and extending from a point below the pivots of the drop fin rs radially of,the

ittin head and ina orizontal plane intermediate the upper and lower ends of the fin ers to the trip mechanism, substantially as escribed.

4, In combination in a stop motion for circular knitting machines an annular series of pivotally mounted drop fingers each consisting of a rod depending below its pivot and engaging the yarn at 1ts' free lower end and a conrtoller for restoring all or any one of the annular series of drop fingers to raised position, said controller consisting of a rotary plate havin its edge directed horizontally and provi ed with a plurality of high and low parts, said drop fingers depending across the edge of said plate, said controller engagin the drop fingers directly and close to and low the pivot bearings thereof, substantially as described.

.5. In combination in a stop motion for knitting machines, an annular series-of drop fingers consisting of arms pivotally mounted and depending below their pivots and engaging the yarn at their free lower ends, and a circumferentiall troller ring having high and low portions on its outer periphery. directed outwardly to directly en age the drop fingers below'their pivots, su stantially as described. -6. In combination pivoted drop fingers,

low parts, to cooperate with the drop fingers,

movable consaid ring or plate en 'ng the drop fin ers below their pivots su: stantially as' descri d. 7. In combination in a stop motion for knitting machines, a supporting ring, drop fingers pivoted thereto, a casing for trip mechanism below the ring, and a controller rin having hi h and low parts on its :peripfiery directe outwardly, said drop fingers depending from their pivots across the periphery of said controller, said controller ring being held and guided between the said caslng and the supporting ringand acting on the drop fingers below their pivots, substantially as described.

8. In combination an annular series of drop fingers, an annular support therefor to which the drop fin ers are pivoted and from which they depen a controller ring having high and low parts to coeperate with thedrop fingers, and restore and hold them in elevated position, said controller lying below the said support and rotatable about the axis of said support, a handle arranged above the support, a connection from said handle to the controller extending through the support and a spring for returning the handle to normal position, substantially as described. y 1

9. In combination a pivot support, drop fingers pivoted to said support and depending therefrom, a controller ring for the drop fingers having high portions to engage the same and lift them to working. positlon -acollar arranged above and coaxially with the pivot support, and having a connection extending through said support to the controller ring, a handle for operating the collar with the ring in one direction and a spring for returning the collar with the ring in the other direction, substantially as described.

10. In combination, stopmotion mecha-' nism having-a plurality of dro fingers engaged by the yarn and held in elevated position by the draft of the yarn and dropping ing member, and a handle connected with the let-01f mechanism for resetting it to be heldby the trip mechanism, said circumferenti-ally movable restoring member being manually operable to move the drop fingers to and hold them in elevated position while the let-ofi' mechanism and trip are-being reset, said restoring member having high. and low parts so disposed that all the drop fingers will be freeto drop when the member is in one position and all will be held up when the member is in another position, substantially as described.

11. In combination 'in a stop motion for knitting machines, a pluralit of drop fingers, trip mechanism contro ed thereby, let-ofi' mechanismcontrolled by the tr1p mechanism, a handle for resettingthe letofl .mechanim vto be held by the trip, and a hand operated means common to and for moving all'of the dro fingers to elevated position and holding t em in this position while the let-ofi' is being reset bv the other handle and until the draft of the yarn is sufli'cient to hold the drop "fingers in their elevated positions, said hand operated means, when in normal position, leaving all the fingers free to fall and means for insuring the return of said hand operated means 'to normal position, substantially as described.

. 1AM '0. TA LOR; 

